Local elections of primary importance are on ballot Tuesday

Tuesday will be an election of primary importance to local communities.

And yet, as happens in a local primary, many voters will fail to visit the polls because the election “isn’t important.”

Voter turnout is highest for a presidential election, second highest for governors. Turnout for primary elections, in which voters are choosing who will appear on the ballot in November, is lower.

Lowest turnout is in local primary elections, ironically the only primaries where some races can be decided.

Not important? We doubt that many people would characterize as unimportant the decisions about local property tax rates, schools where our children are taught or the fate of criminals in our communities.

The people making those decisions are the ones on the ballot in a primary. Tuesday may be your only chance to have a say in who sits on local school boards or behind local court benches.

School boards provide the most heated contests in the area. In Pottsgrove, four incumbents are facing four challengers, whose run in part was inspired by the debate last year over the board’s decision to enact the “centers” approach to elementary education.

The approach groups all grades together, with K-2 students being taught at West Pottsgrove and Ringing Rocks elementary schools, and grades 3-5 being taught at Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School. And although it’s clear that the challengers’ campaign began with dissatisfaction over the adoption last year of the centers approach, all four have said they will not try to immediately reverse the decision if elected.

Their issue has more to do with the school board’s handling of that debate than the outcome, they have said.

In addition to Pottsgrove, Phoenixville and Spring-Ford area school boards have contested races. Boyertown Area School Board has a contest in District 1.

One of the idiosyncrasies of Pennsylvania election law is that judicial and school board candidates can “cross-file” to seek both the Republican and the Democratic line on the ballot. Candidates who win both lines are usually assured victory in November.

Candidates are not required to file on both lines, however, which can confuse the process.

In Pottsgrove, for example, the challengers only filed to run on one ballot line, three on the Democratic and one on the Republican, so some may get knocked off the general election ballot.

Other significant local races in this primary are mayoral primaries in Phoenixville and Pottstown and several supervisor races. In New Hanover Township, two candidates with ties to the owner of the controversial Gibraltar Quarry project in the township are battling an incumbent and a local fire chief for the Republican nomination for township supervisor. Since there are no Democrats on the ballot, the winners of the primary are virtually assured seats on the board.

The race shows that even in small places, campaigns can be heated. One of the flyers put together by a paid New Jersey consulting firm for the challengers referred to 47 percent more taxes in New Hanover over the past decade. The figure refers to “taxes collected,” which shows New Hanover’s growth, but can easily be misread to seem as if the township has been steadily raising taxes.

In a primary where turnout is low, one or two votes can mean the difference between a win and a loss. So every vote not cast because a voter neglected to go to the polls carries more import as well.

Local primary elections give voters a say in who will represent them in important decisions affecting their communities.